Friday Night Academic Results

Decatur 56 Gainesville 20

Mineral Wells 28 Bridgeport 56

Alvord 44 Petrolia 0

Boyd 11 Gunter 36

Chico 14 Valley View 7

Henrietta	14
Paradise	21

Sarah Palin In College

"I may be broke, but I'm not flat busted." Girl's got a sense of humor.

And Another X 2

Man, I'm getting inundated with emails about this story. Edit: "Both teens were riding high-performance motorcycles — Mr. Smith a blue and white 2008 Suzuki GSX-R 600, and Mr. Wright a black 2006 Kawasaki Ninja 636." (From DMN story.) Edit: An from emailer Keith comes this story.

A Buddy Of Mine . . .

. . . sent out this pic yesterday of his newborn son being introduced to his sister. I think the nurse's job, at least for that moment, would be the greatest job in the world.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• I had the worst nightmare last night about the murder of someone from my past. (Complete with being told by law enforcement that the body had been found in a town in West Texas.) Then I'd wake up, realize it was a dream, go back to sleep, and have the dream start right back up again where it left off. It was maddening.
• I actually feel like calling that person up and saying, "you may be in danger." But I don't believe in stuff like that.
• Quick, try and recognize this guy from a 1990s TV show.
• McCain had what seemed like two speeches last night. He started off slow and boring, but did a pretty good job on the back half.
• With both conventions over with, at least we can stop hearing empty promises for Democrats and Republicans.
• I'm not sure what is up with protesters, but some chunky lady last night was able to avoid capture for about 30 seconds by simply walking down the steps.
• You don't see it very often, but a 23 year old was given probation from a jury yesterday in an Intoxication Manslaughter case in Fort Worth. The defense lawyer was Jeffrey Boncek - I don't think I've ever heard of him
• But get this from the victim's father who addressed the defendant in the post-verdict victim impact statement: "Cullens’ father, Philip Cullens, was even harsher, telling Parks he hopes he becomes depressed, starts taking drugs and has his probation revoked so he will be sent to prison. 'You’ll rue the day you killed my son, he said."
• I'm getting the urge to drive across America
• I've never logged on to Facebook and visit MySpace maybe twice a year.
• Google has a new browser, a "docs" site (with a word processor, spreadsheet, and power point equivalent), gMail, and an RSS reader that is second to none. I wonder if there will come a day where we don't buy software packages but simply use applications that are online?
• The Ticket was talking this morning about how beautiful the Cedar Hill area was. They mentioned some pretty big elevation changes in that area south of the metroplex. I had no idea. (I guess I might want to learn the metroplex before I drive across the country.)
• Man, the voter turnout in November is going to be phenomanal. Both sides are fired up.
• But local politics here in Wise County is boring. It's kind of sad that everything was determined back in March.
• I had a client the other day who had a prior conviction for something back in 1991. We both remarked about how long ago 1991 was.
• Saw "Senior 2009" written on a back windshield in Decatur yesterday. Oh, my.
• Speaking of shoe polish writing, I saw a giggly young couple go into a convenience store last Saturday, buy shoe polish, scribble something (with much care) on their back windshield, and drive off hurriedly down the highway. I had to get a look. "Just Engaged," it read.

And a big finish. The most awkward moment from last night's speech by McCain: I fight for you. I fight for Bill and Sue Nebe from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who lost -- [huge cheers from the Michigan delegation because Michigan was mentioned] -- they lost their real estate investments in the bad housing market. I fight for Jake and Toni Wimmer of Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Jake -- [huge cheers from Pennsylvania delegation because Pennyslvania was mentioned] -- Jake works on a loading dock, coaches Little League, and raises money for the mentally and physically disabled . . . . I fight for the family of Matthew Stanley of Wolfboro, New Hampshire. [huge cheers from New Hampshire delegation because New Hampshire was mentioned.] Matthew died serving our country in Iraq. [Insert awkward quietness from the no longer cheering New Hampshire delegation]

As I Watch The Republican Convention . . .

. . . actually a short film about how John McCain and his trophy wife met (I think a couple of relevant family value facts were omitted), I started looking around the Internets to see if any one else was doing some eye rolling. I then came across this photo with the caption, "At least they've settled on a message." I have no idea what was going on when the "Obey" signs came out. Edit: Unless this is a photoshopped joke in which case I'm stupid but bow in the direction of the joke creator. Edit: Back to Cindy McCain. I just heard her speak about the starving children in Bangladesh as she wears a pair of diamond earrings worth more than my house. I'm confused.

At Least He Didn't Get A Little Handsy

Story. And Jerry has handled some pretty famous cases over the years.

Highlight Of The Night

That Is One For The History Books

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Limited interest that I found interesting: A Fort Worth lawyer goes off on a bonding company.
• I heard a term on the radio yesterday that I hadn't heard since I was a kid playing back yard baseball: Ghost Runner.
• The reason everyone should vote against the Republicans: The convention ended last night with, "Ladies and gentleman. Tonight's entertainment. Musicians Gretchen Wilson. John Rich [of Big and Rich], and Cowboy Troy." I had the life force sucked out of me.
• There is a Cultural Divide in this country unlike anything I've ever seen. And it will only get worse.
• They moved the Morning News and Star Telegram news racks across from the Messenger building to a new location about fifty feet away. And the guy in charge of stocking the Morning News still hasn't figured out that an empty rack at the end of the day means he didn't put enough papers in there.
• I wonder if anyone ever goes into the Decatur Visitor's Center (in the old post office building)?
• New Jessica Simpson "Hey, now."
• The home invasion robbery in Blue Mound that left one of the invaders dead was just crazy. My "there has to be some back story to this" radar went off, but I think it is what it is.
• The NFL opens tonight - the same night that McCain gives his acceptance speech. Who was in charge of that planning?
• I like watching Scarlett Johansson in films, but the only thing she appears in these days are movies made for the wine and cheese crowd at the Magnolia.
• Independence Day is an awful movie. (Very random thought.)
• BMX rider face plant.
• Somebody needs to do something about the red light at FM 51 and Preskitt Road in Decatur. Nothing drives me more crazy than a light that turns red when there is no cross traffic.
• And there's a camera on top of that red light. What's that for? Is there some "command center" underneath Decatur that I don't know about?
• I don't know why I watched the whole 7 minute speech of Sarah Palin speaking to her hometown church before she was the VP nominee, but I did. That's like something you would hear in any protestant church in Wise County.
• Palin's got a slight Fargo accent.
• Dang it, I'm getting political again: For all of you that go goo goo over Palin, you can't criticize those that go goo goo over Obama. Both individuals have thin resumes but have millions of people that simply believe in them.
• Didn't watch the final episode of Hard Knocks last night. The first episode started out great but it went downhill after that.
• After last year's Fantasy Football draft, I took a picture of a dead snake that our County Attorney had killed on his own property that ended up being (and I'm not making this up) some kind of protected serpent. After I posted the pic, somebody called the Game Warden, and the CA ended up paying a $500 fine. I get reminded of that incident. Often.

The Speech

Ok, I know a few of you watched it and have some hot opinions about it. My Random Thoughts:

• Her "cut government spending" schtick is pretty good
• Her rhetoric came off much harsher tonight than I expected. And she might want to be careful with that: Biden could really clean her clock in a debate simply because he's better at it.
• She stretched the truth a little bit ("He's worried that we won't be reading [the terrorists] their rights" and that "taxes will go up with [Obama].")
• "What's the difference between a soccer mom and a pit bull? Lipstick." Some speech writer needs to be fired tomorrow for borrowing jokes from the 1990s.
• She comes across as confident, but I'm not sure why. Kind of like a first round draft pick who hasn't played a down yet.
• But she's probably fun to hang out with. And she's hot.
• With today's greeting on the runway, McCain has met her three times.
• There is no question: The conservative masses will love her.
• Edit: I'll be dang. They had BabyDaddy up on stage with the pregnant daughter. This morning, WBAP's Mark Davis suggested that should happen, and I thought "no way." But they did. And, I'll agree, it worked.

"Son, Try Something New: Be On Your Best Behavior Tonight Or I'll Break You In Half"

"Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., right, greets Levi Johnston, left, boyfriend of Bristol Palin, center, the pregnant daughter of vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin."

State Senator Candidate Noriega and Longtime Wise County Constable Dennis Hudson . . .

. . . hang out together. Which has probably never happened before. Just stumbled on it on the local Dems web site.

The Death Star

As three of you know, I'm a stadium fan. Weird quirk, I know. I just like to go and see stadiums that I've seen on TV for years. But I haven't been down to Austin in quite a while and hadn't realized just how much they've changed the Darrell Joe Jamail Royal Memorial Stadium Field. First, look at that pick of the north end zone. I sat in that thing when it was one lower level and pretty much detached from the rest of the stadium. The other picture is the Godzillatron video screen they put in a couple of years ago. Those are guys in yellow security coats at the bottom of the picture to give you an idea as to how big it is. I might need to go visit that place.

Wednesday Afternoon Pick Me Up

Fake. But Funny.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Feels like Fall this morning. That's-a-good.
• A fantasy football draft (mine occurred last night - photo below) with 14 teams and 15 rounds can turn into a beating
• My league actually paid Yahoo $129 for its fantasy football package because it had some extra features we had to have that the free version didn't.
• The Star Telegram home page is still "Tracking Hurricane Gustav." I think it's in Cottondale now
• The Republican National Convention seemed very white last night.
• Lot's of Bird Hunting Talk at the courthouse yesterday
• I had another taillight go out on the family truckster. I actually had a spare replacement light from last week so I was able to change it on the spot. Never had that happen before.
• I'm not sure I understand the Burning Man celebration. It looks like a bunch of hippies. But I would kind of like to go see it.
• Obama got the expected "bump" from the Democratic Convention as he now leads McCain 50% to 42% in the Gallup Poll.
• I don't like going to bed at midnight and getting up at 5:00 a.m.
• I appreciate the banter in the comments between Right Wing and Left Wing but I don't think either side is subject to being persuaded to change
• I don't think we expect much out of life.
• "Glamour models Rosie Jones, Amy Diamond and Katie Downs march down Oxford Street in London wearing lingerie to promote the reopening of the Ann Summers store." In America, we settle for a ribbon cutting with big, fake scissors.
• A college president gets photographed holding a mini-beer bong over a coed's mouth in a boat and ends up being forced to resign with a $400,000 severance package? Sign me up.
• Nicholas Cage makes about three movies a year. Most of them bad. (Saw him briefly on David Letterman last night while I was channel surfing.)
• I drove through Granbury for the first time in years last weekend (home of Jarhead, I believe.) Man, that place is built up. Big time.
• The boyfriend of the pregnant daughter of Sarah Palin apparently had a myspace page referring to himself as a "redneck", dropped some profanity, and said he "didn't want kids." You knew that scrutiny was coming.
• Had a guy ask me last weekend when the NFL season started. If he didn't know, it probably didn't matter to him very much.
• It was still amazing how McCain went from a non-contender to the nominee overnight in the primaries earlier this year. Time magazine has a time line this week showing he won Florida on January 29th and most of the states on Super Tuesday on February 5th. And the election was over in a matter of eight days.
• Politics truly does give me Tired Head
• I haven't been to a rodeo since I was forced to because of a double date. It was a bad date and I still had to sit through the rodeo.

11th Round Of Fantasy Draft And I'm Beaten Down

This Day Has Made Me Insane

Yeah, the female readers are always railing on me for not posting pics of guys. So I'd thought I'd offer this peace offering of That Guy who attended the Evil Empire game this week in Austin. I can only wonder what that nutcase is saying to her. Something like, "You know, I like to take mustard and put it on the ham before I put the ham on the sandwich. Then I dip the sandwich directly in the ketchup. That just seems nature's way of doing it right, know what I mean? Because, really, ya just got keep on livin'."

A Decatur Player Make Week #0's Nomination List

Link.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Remember when I said on Friday that you should think to yourself "enjoy this moment" as you left for a three day weekend?
• Have any of you seen the very shocking Levi's commerciall where the couple has apparently just met at a bar?
• The Hurricane coverage was silly. The mayor of New Orleans called it "the mother of all storms" but this morning a Fox 4 reporter was showing how fierce the storm was by holding up "this strong plastic sign that had been broken in half."
• I had a lady drop a huge Profanity Bomb on me yesterday and she pulled away from a gas station. I think it was something about how I parked but I'm still not sure. I think I stood there for a full minute with Confused Head.
• I do feel kind of bad about posting the pics of the Baylor twirlers. But the photos first appeared on the Waco Tribune web site.
• For years you couldn't miss the Jerry Lewis Telethon if you tried. Now I can go most Labor Day weekends and be completely oblivious to the fact that it is on.
• The Tennessee/UCLA game last night was great. College football trumps all others.
• I'm attending a very delayed Fantasy Football draft tonight in the fair town of Paradise.
• Hey, the guy that does all the movie trailer voices (i.e "One man . . . . ") has died.
• All that tricked up fried stuff at the State Fair (this year's winner is Chicken Fried Bacon) is just dumb.
• I'm about halfway through "The Last Lecture" book which really isn't as moving as I thought it would be. He's almost a little too detached from his tragedy. (But he had an interesting point when he decided to just accept being charged $16.00 too much at a self check-out line. With such a short time to live, he simply didn't want to spend 15 minutes of his life with the hassle to get it back.)
• There are few joys in life as exciting as finding a restaurant with a salsa bar.
• With all the controversy over the pregnant 17 year old daughter of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin. I had completely missed all the rumors that the daughter may have also given birth to Trig Palin (who the presumptive VP says is her own infant son.) Don't know if it's true, but the Republicans sure don't need all of this distraction during Convention Week.
• And Drudge had a link to the picture of the babydaddy of the newborn-to-be.
• Seeing three ants on my kitchen counter is enough for me to use the equivalent of the nuclear option in killing them.
• What a horrific possibly DWI related wreck in Dallas over the weekend

Don't Ask Me Why I Drove Through Blum, TX Today

But that made me chuckle.

Uh, Oh

And Fox News reported a second ago that McCain knew about this before he chose her as a running mate. Not sure I believe that. But to Barack's credit, he said this topic was "off limits." Edit: Upon further reflection, this is really puzzling. Why in the world would McCain take on this problem if he didn't have to? (Assuming he knew, which I'm stil not convinced about.) And, as I read somewhere else, why would Palin accept the VP nomination when she knew it would cause so much scrutiny of her young daughter?

Saw this in 'convince' store

From Barry (by mobile)

Eight Years Ago

Random Hurricane Thoughts

• I'd forgotten what a goof ball the mayor of New Orleans is. And I didn't know he was still there
• I promise I saw Pete Delkus on Friday night project landfall of this new one on Thursday at 7:00 a.m. (I know, like all local weather guys, he's just reading off the press release of the National Hurricane Center but I can't believe that was the correct information.)
• What's up with these crazy Hurricane names? Gustav? We can't even protect our weather borders anymore.
• The press loves a hurricane. I think it's the "anticipation factor." (One of the funniest, but truest, lines from a Simpsons episode was uttered by a guy Marge was about to - but didn't - cheat with, "Better than the moment. Better than the memory. The moment of . . . Anticipation!")
• I finally finished the Scott McClellan's book, What Happened, and he called the above photo of Bush doing a flyover of New Orleans after Katrina on of his "worst political blunders" because he appeared detached and uncaring. I've never thought that at all. (And that book was nothing more than a rehashing of old headlines - no inside info whatsoever.)
• Now this photo, that was different.